Nazareth Sweeps Birches For Norco Title * Winners Pound Out 14 Hits And Score 10 Runs In Two Innings En Route To Win.

July 26, 1997|by JOHN JAY FOX, The Morning Call

The Robert H. Osterstock Memorial Trophy returned home Friday night.

Emblematic of Northampton County American Legion League supremacy, the "Big O" award rode back to Nazareth following a 13-1 12-run rule victory over Birches for a sweep of the best-of-3 championship series.

The founder of legion ball in the borough, Osterstock died in January, 1996. Later that year, NorCo officials named the title trophy for the Nazareth coach of 43 seasons and former league president.

"This was a season dedicated to Big O," Nazareth skipper Frank Jurasits said, choking back tears. "He founded baseball here in 1953 and I worked with him for 25 years. I don't know whether to cry, laugh, jump or what. I'm just too excited to realize what it's all about.

"Bob did everything to make Legion ball go. I see the trophy here and I can't believe we're taking it home. This will sink in sometime tonight," Jurasits said.

First-seeded Nazareth (26-3-2) buried second-seed Birches with a 14-hit attack that chalked up 10 runs in two innings. In the first, Ian Burley, Rob Rohn, Chris Sauerzopf and Kevin Buss all stroked ropes to the outfield. Rohn, Ryan Fry, Sauerzopf and Scott Farkas each knocked in runs.

The winners piled on six scores in the second with seven hits and then made it 12-0 in the third. Winning hurler Bret Remel (11-1) scattered four hits and didn't allow a runner past second until the fifth.

"We worked together and got the win," Remel said. "I work to just be consistent. I have a good fastball that moves and all I have to do is get the ball in play and let the defense handle the rest.

"It helped to get the early runs. I lost 4-3 to them in the regular season and figured if I got more than four runs, I'd be able to hold them," he said.

It was the first title for Nazareth in 34 years and sixth since the league was founded in 1932. Nazareth advances to the double-elimination Region 2 legion playoffs at 1 p.m. Tuesday against top-seed Birdsboro at Emmaus.

"I didn't think it would go like this," Jurasits said of the back-to-back wins. "I thought it would go three games. But, the kids said they wanted to get it done in two and wrap it up. The score just amazed me."

Fry, who pitched Nazareth to victory in Game 1 of the short series, was 3-for-4 Friday, knocking in runs during each at-bat.

"We came out and won the first game (5-1) and that set us up for the sweep," Fry said. "When we won the opener, we got it in our minds that we'd take the two. Today, we just came out and hit the ball all around.

"It's the best that we've hit all year. We were hitting ground balls and fly balls. Today, we hit line drives and hard balls to the outfield that they couldn't get at."

Birches closed the season at 23-8-1.

"They came out aggressively hitting the ball. Two close calls in the first deflated us and it went down hill from there," said Birches coach John Konawalik of a bang-bang play at the plate for Nazareth's first run and a bad fielding decision that helped Nazareth pick up speed.

"Maybe we make the plays in the beginning of the game and things might have changed," Konawalik said of a squad that was picked as a .500 team at season's start. "It's awful when you play this poorly in the championship game. We played real lackluster."